Optical power has been steadily increased in telecommunication and other modern fiber optic systems. Unexpected events, such as failures of critical components and other malfunctions within such fiber optic systems may cause increases in optical power intensity well above critical thresholds. Such optical power intensity overload conditions may trigger various events, such as damage or destruction of attached optical equipment, possibility of fire hazard, etc. Effective and fast protection against any unexpected increase of optical power in optical fiber systems is desirable.
Some prior art solutions use relatively large fuse assemblies that have diameters larger than the incoming and outgoing optical fibers they attach to. This may present limitations in some systems. Further, many of the prior art designs may have a relatively slow response time due to their large inherent size. Also, some systems may suffer from high insertion loss. Moreover, such optical fuse devices may be relatively complex to produce.
Thus, given the above, there is a long felt and unmet need for a small diameter, fast and effective optical fuse device to offer protection against unexpected increases of optical power in optical fiber systems.